IT4IT 3 Foundation key terms

The end-to-end set of activities through which IT transforms demand into services consumed by the business, described in IT4IT as a chain of value streams and supporting functional components rather than a single process model.

A vendor-neutral, open standard that models the business of IT as a value chain with four value streams, defined functional components, and standardized data objects, enabling integration and comparison across IT management tools.

An end-to-end sequence of activities that creates measurable value for a stakeholder, triggered by a demand or event and ending in a delivered outcome; IT4IT defines four such streams across the IT value chain.

The IT4IT value stream that governs demand, strategy, investment and portfolio decisions, ensuring the service portfolio stays aligned with business goals and available budget.

The IT4IT value stream that turns agreed requirements into developed, tested and deployed service releases, covering build, integration, verification and production rollout activities.

The IT4IT value stream that handles consumption of services, from a user request or subscription through fulfillment, charging and support, ensuring services are delivered at agreed levels.

The IT4IT value stream that monitors services in production, detects events and incidents, diagnoses root causes and restores or corrects service so agreed performance is maintained.

A well-defined, independently deployable unit of IT management capability within the IT4IT Reference Architecture, described by its purpose, data objects and interfaces, and often realized by one or more software products.

A standardized, structured representation of information managed by IT4IT functional components, such as a service, requirement or incident, whose defined lifecycle and relationships enable integration between tools.

The IT4IT data object that describes a service in terms of its offering, components, service levels and dependencies, acting as the central integration point between the four value streams.

The collection of services an IT organization offers or plans to offer, including their business value, cost, lifecycle state and ownership, used to steer investment and retirement decisions.

A request or need originating from the business, a customer or an internal source that enters the IT value chain and must be evaluated, prioritized and possibly converted into an investment or service change.

A documented, testable statement of a capability or constraint that a service or component must satisfy, forming the input to design, build and verification activities in the value chain.

A defined, versioned collection of changes to one or more services that is packaged, tested and deployed together into production as a single controlled unit.

The activity of moving a tested service release into the production environment and making it available to consumers, including the associated verification and rollback arrangements.

An unplanned interruption to, or reduction in the quality of, a service that requires a response to restore normal operation within agreed service levels.

The underlying cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents that is investigated and removed to prevent recurrence and reduce the frequency or impact of future disruptions.

A detectable occurrence or state change in an infrastructure element, service or application that is monitored and may trigger an incident, a change or another automated action.

The controlled addition, modification or removal of anything that could affect IT services, assessed for risk, authorized and scheduled before implementation to protect service stability.

Any component under configuration control that is treated as a single entity for management purposes, with recorded attributes, versions and relationships to other components.

The defined sequence of states a data object passes through from creation to retirement, with permitted transitions and required approvals governing how the object may change.

A discrete phase within a value stream that groups related functional components and data objects, such as plan, build, deliver or run, used to organize the architecture.

The ability of an organization, person or system to achieve a specific outcome using defined resources, processes and knowledge, often modeled to plan improvement of the business of IT.

A documented agreement between a service provider and a consumer that specifies measurable service targets, responsibilities and remedies for failing to meet those targets.

A measurable characteristic of a delivered service, such as availability or response time, that is defined, monitored and reported to demonstrate whether agreed targets are being met.

A consumer's recorded commitment to use a service offering under stated terms, which drives fulfillment, entitlement and charging activities within the consumption value stream.

A description of what a service provides to consumers, including its features, pricing, terms and target audience, published so that demand can be matched to available supply.

A defined exchange between functional components or value streams, specified in terms of the data objects and operations involved, enabling interoperable tools within the reference architecture.

A structured template of components, relationships and standards that guides the design of concrete solutions, allowing comparison and reuse without prescribing specific products.

A product delivered and consumed digitally, whose lifecycle spans strategy, build, delivery and operation, and which the IT value chain must manage as a first-class business asset.

The process of applying the reference architecture in an organization, typically by mapping current tools to functional components, defining target data objects and planning incremental integration.

Connecting separate IT management tools so they exchange standardized data objects through defined interfaces, reducing manual handoffs and creating an end-to-end view of the value chain.

The way an IT organization plans, builds, delivers and runs services as a business, balancing cost, risk and value for its consumers rather than acting only as a technology supplier.

A defined stage in the life of a service, such as planned, active or retired, that determines which activities are permitted and how the service appears in the portfolio.

A prioritized piece of pending work, such as a requirement, defect or enhancement, held for planning and selection into a future release or iteration.

A structured investigation that identifies the fundamental reason an incident or recurring failure occurred, so that corrective action prevents it from happening again.

The degree to which a tool, process or organization's implementation aligns with the components, data objects and interfaces defined in the IT4IT Reference Architecture.